28 July 2019
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The gospel today provides us with Luke’s version of the “Our Father,” a prayer provided by Jesus after the request of the apostles asking Jesus how to pray. The reading recalls the importance of prayer. No doubt the apostles saw Jesus spending time in prayer and drew the logical connection that the time spent in prayer helped shape the person he was. They liked what they saw and they too, wanted to be men like Jesus and therefore logically desired to be men of prayer. Prayer has been a hallmark of all religious experience and Christianity is no exception. What is exceptional in Christian prayer is the object of that prayer. It is not some abstract power or brute force but rather a loving Father who cares for his children and wants the best for all of them. Realizing that the becoming like Jesus involved a life of prayer, the Jesuits historically have spent time and their resources in helping people pray. The Spiritual Exercises stands at the front of this tradition with subsequent movements and organizations such as the Apostleship of Prayer, the Marian Sodalities, and the retreat movement all stand within the Jesuit tradition of helping men and women to follow Jesus towards God, our loving Father.